Devops Automation Using Docker, Kubernetes and Openshift

The second day of Devops 2016 started with a technical talk from a RedHat employee, Siamak Sadeghianfar. The focus of this talk was specifically automation of the DevOps processes with containers.

He started his presentation by describing Docker, which he called a huge DevOps enabler. This, he said, is because with containers deployments become just another configuration. Deployment turns into one button click. This aligns with the ideals of the DevOps movement of automating and simplifying environment setup. Once written, Docker scripts can run on any linux machine. It is great, but only until the deployments grow into complex and multi-container affairs. Then you need more functionality, including networking between containers, self-healing when a container dies etc. Here Sadeghianfar introduced Kubernetes, which provides a lot of container-oriented functionality. With it, orchestrating multiple containers becomes just another configuration in the deployment pipeline.

Kubernetes is a popular tool and many companies are building on top of it, or use it as part of their product. However, Sadeghianfar notes there are things that Kubernetes is not capable of. Attached slide from the presentation lists the elements that Kubernetes is missing. Sadeghianfar lists for each of them various existing software products and services.

Still, the choice can be a hinderance: too many services to learn, setup and use. Here Sadeghianfar introduced OpenShift as a holistic solution. He explained how it compliments Kubernetes and Docker by taking care of all those missing functionalities. To finish the presentation, he showed a demo of OpenShift. Using a web-UI he spun up a container and demonstrated how auto-update reacted to a change in the git repository. He ended the talk after answering a few questions from the audience.

As a listener, I found myself following his presentation easily. He presented the ideas in a flow, each new one complementing the previous. He spoke about Docker’s faults - picturing them in the minds of the audience - and followed immediately with description of Kubernetes, that solved those issues. Each service was presented that way. The analysis of Docker and Kubernetes was quite educational, even if the underlying goal was to present OpenShift, a RedHat product. Aside from the advertising agenda, the talk is a good introductory material.

If you want to see Sadeghianfar’s talk, follow this link.